The Lord is present (Ezek. 48:35).
Moreover, the personal pronouns ascribed to God prove personality: John 17:3, et al. "To know thee"—we cannot know an influence in the sense in which the word know is here used. Statement: All through the Scriptures names and personal pronouns are ascribed to God which undeniably prove that God is a Person.
(2) A sharp distinction is drawn in the Scriptures between the gods of heathen and the Lord God of Israel (See Jer. 10:10–16).
Note the context: vv. 3–9: Idols are things, not persons; they cannot walk, speak, do good or evil. God is wiser than the men who made these idols; if the idol-makers are persons, much more is God.
See the sharp contrast drawn between dead idols and the living, personal, true and only God: Acts 14:15; 1 Thess. 1:9; Psa. 94:9, 10.
Statement: God is to be clearly distinguished from things which have no life; he is a living Person.
(3) Attributes of personality are ascribed to God in the Scriptures.
God repents (Gen. 6:6}; grieves {Gen 6:6}; is angry {1 Kings 11:9); is jealous (Deut. 6:15); loves (Rev. 3:19); hates (Prov. 6:16).
Statement: God possesses the attributes of personality, and therefore is a Person.
(4) The relation which God bears to the Universe and to Men, as set forth in the Scriptures, can be explained only on the basis that God is a Person.
Deism maintains that God, while the Creator of the world, yet sustains no further relations to it. He made it just as the clock-maker makes a self-winding clock: makes it and then leaves it to run itself without any interference on His part. Such teaching as this finds no sanction in the Bible. What are God's relations to the universe and to men?
aa) He is the Creator of the Universe and Man.
Gen. 1:1, 26; John. 1:1–3. These verses contain vital truths. The universe did not exist from eternity, nor was it made from existing matter. It did not proceed as an emanation from the infinite, but was summoned into being by the decree of God. Science, by disclosing to us the marvellous power and accuracy of natural law, compels us to believe in a superintending intelligence who is infinite. Tyndall said: "I have noticed that it is not during the hours of my clearness and vigor that the doctrine of material atheism commends itself to my mind."
(In this connection the Arguments from Cause and Design, pp. 16 and 17, may be properly considered.)
Statement: The Creation of the Universe and Man proves the Personality of the Creator—God.
bb) God sustains certain relations to the Universe and Man which He has made.
Heb 1:3—"Uphold all things." Col. 1:15–17—"By him all things hold together." Psa. 104:27–30—All creatures wait upon Him for "their meat in due season." Psa. 75:6, 7—"Promotion" among men, the putting down of one man and the setting up of another, is from the hand of God.
What do we learn from these scriptures regarding the relation of
God to this universe, to man, and to all God's creatures?
First. That all things are held together by Him; if not, this old world would go to pieces quickly. The uniformity and accuracy of natural law compels us to believe in a personal God who intelligently guides and governs the universe. Disbelief in this fact would mean utter confusion. Not blind chance, but a personal God is at the helm.
Second. That the physical supplies for all God's creatures are in His hand: He feeds them all. What God gives we gather. If He withholds provision we die.
Third. That God has His hand in history, guiding and shaping the affairs of nations. Victor Hugo said: "Waterloo was God."
Fourth. Consider with what detail God's care is described: The sparrows, the lilies, the hairs of the head, the tears of His children, etc. See how these facts are clearly portrayed in the following scriptures: Matt. 6:28–30; 10:29, 30; Gen. 39:21, with 50:20; Dan. 1:9; Job 1:12.
Statement: The personality of God is shown by His active, interest and participation all things, even the smallest things, in the universe, the experience of man, and in the life of all His creatures.
THE UNITY OF GOD: (Vs. Polytheism).
There are three monotheistic religions in the world: Judaism, Christianity, and Mahommedanism. The second is a development of the first; the third is an outgrowth of both.
The doctrine of the Unity of God is held in contradistinction to Polytheism, which is belief in a multiplicity of gods; Tri-theism, which teaches that there are three Gods—that is, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are, specifically, three distinct Gods; and to Dualism, which teaches that there are two independent divine beings or eternal principles, the one good, and the other evil, as set forth especially in Gnostic systems, such as Parseeism.
a) The Scriptures Assert the Unity of God.
Deut. 6:4—"Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord"; or, "The Lord our God, the Lord is one." Isa. 44:6–8—"First … last … beside me there is no God." Isa. 45:5—"There is none else, there is no God beside me." 1 Tim. 2:5 "There is one God." 1 Cor. 8:4—"There is none other God but one."
That God is one, that there is no other, that He has no equal is the forceful testimony of above fifty passages in the Scriptures. The fundamental duty of life, namely, the devotion of the entire being to the Lord, is based upon the Unity of God: "The Lord … is one … therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," etc.
No other truth of the Scripture, particularly of the Old Testament, receives more prominence than that of the Unity of God. This truth is clearly pronounced also in the material universe; it is the introduction and conclusion of all scientific researches. Any other representation contradicts both creation and revelation. Its denial is a proper object for the ridicule of every thinking man, and of the disbelief of every orthodox Christian. Let this, then, be our first and necessary conclusion—that Deity, whether creating, inspiring, or otherwise manifesting itself, is one God; one, and no more.—Cerdo.
A multiplication of Gods is a contradiction; there can be but one
God. There can be but one absolutely perfect, supreme, and almighty
Being. Such a Being cannot be multiplied, nor pluralized. There
can be but one ultimate, but one all-inclusive, but one God.
Monotheism, then, not Tri-theism, is the doctrine set forth in the Scriptures. "If the thought that wishes to be orthodox had less tendency to become tri-theistic, the thought that claims to be free would be less Unitarian."—Moberly.
b) The Nature of the Divine Unity.
The doctrine of the Unity of God does not exclude the idea of a plurality of persons in the Godhead. Not that there are three persons in each person of the Godhead, if we use in both cases the term person in one and the same sense. We believe, therefore, that there are three persons in the Godhead, but one God. Anti-trinitarians represent the evangelical church as believing in three Gods, but this is not true; it believes in one God, but three persons in the Godhead.
(1) The Scriptural use of the word "One."
Gen. 2:24—"And they two (husband and wife) shall be one flesh." Gen. 11:6—"The people is one." I Cor. 3:6–8—"He that planteth and he that watereth are one." 12:13—"All baptized into one body." John 17:22, 23—"That they may be one, even as we are one … that they may be made perfect in one."
The word "one" in these scriptures is used in a collective sense; the unity here spoken of is a compound one, like unto that used in such expressions as "a cluster of grapes," or "all the people rose as one man." The unity of the Godhead is not simple but compound. The Hebrew word for "one" (yacheed) in the absolute sense, and which is used in such expressions as "the only one," is never used to express the unity